'We aren't going to be defeated by carrots' (says Chris)
Reflective mood today (might be the painkillers from a sore tooth!)....We love what we do. Hopefully this comes through in our newsletters and when you meet us. We enjoy working outside, we enjoy working where we live and we love that we have created our own little community of customers who all (hopefully!) value what we do. Sometimes the days are long and the work is physical, and we're definitely not doing it for the money, but neither of us have ever done something so rewarding.
We rent the field we grow on, we took on the business with very little money and minimal (no) growing experience - if we can do it anyone can! With the support we get from you amazing lot we can hopefully do more and talk more about what we're doing. We see other organisations who we aspire to, and maybe one day others will aspire to what we're doing.
Half-way through the year, we just wanted to say thank you for enabling us to continue to provide the best tasting produce, minimise wastage and support organic farmers.
The boxes are literally bursting with life, and we've been getting great feedback. But we have got people going away during the summer period which has opened up some slots in Denbigh. If you know of anyone who might want to try our boxes, please let them know we are happy to take on some customers (aiming for just Denbigh and very local surrounds) for just a 4 week period, no need to sign up for any longer. We just want to get as many people as possible trying the veg. Please help us spread the word, as our marketing definitely takes a back-seat to our planning, growing, box packing, shop assistant-ing, etc.
In the field:
Chris has done a video (below) to show you where we're at with the field. Sorry, it's a few minutes long and jumps around a bit but hopefully you can see some of what we've been up to.
We're already planning for next year! And we want to start making more use of the edges...we have propogated perpetual kale (from a plant in our garden) and cleared (currently uncultivated) land between the polytunnels where we're going to plant rhubarb - thanks Martin for your work on this.
Sown the final beans and built the last of the bean structures.
Sown purple sprouting broccoli for the winter - we haven't managed to get a good crop of this yet for various reasons but we're not giving up!
More beetroot, kohlrabi, fennel, salad turnips, swede sown into trays.
Also trying again with the carrots after the tiny ones we grew last year - we aren't going to be defeated and have planted just one bed.
And...of course, weeding (thank you Jenny!)
In the boxes:
Well the pak choi kept us on our toes - we were planning for them to go into the boxes next week but they started going to flower so we got them out quick and they've gone into this week's boxes instead! Apologies some of the kohlrabi is quite small, but we've hopefully given you a few if they're on the small side. We are so proud of this kohlrabi -it's such a better crop than last year's attempt.
Small boxes - new potatoes, purple carrots with tops, onions, cucumber, cavalo nero*, beetroot, courgette, pak choi*
Regular boxes - new potatoes, carrots, onions, cauliflower, palermo peppers, cherry tomatoes, turnups, aubergine, apricots, cavalo nero* / pak choi* / kohlrabi */ green beans / peas* (you may have had one or more of these as we tried to spread what we had across all the boxes)
*from our field
In the shop:
New potatoes (Welsh, yay), orange carrots with/without tops, purple carrots with tops, palermo peppers, red peppers, brown / red onions, cauliflowers, turnips, tomatoes - cherry, heirloom and vine, chestnut / white mushrooms, sweet potatoes, fresh turmeric
From our field: Fresh garlic, kohlrabi, beetroot, lettuce, rhubarb, peas, beans, cavolo nero, fresh horseradish, some herbs
Fruit: Apricots, bananas, gooseberries, cherries, lemons, more oranges (I know I said no more...but they are good!)
Eggs - hen and quail
Pentrefelin milk
Sourdough from Nant y Felin
Other organic goodies including oats, coconut milk, tinned tomatoes and beans, passata, flour, beer, stock, olives, and more. We're getting great feedback on the taste of these :)
Recipe inspiration:
Don't forget we've got some recipe books in the shop specifically for veg box cooking - you can always look through these for inspiration even if you don't want to buy.
Turnips - top tip is to roast them! Try this recipe.
Kohlrabi - Riverford website says 'To prepare, trim off any stems, trim the base, and lightly peel. For boiling, braising and roasting, cut into chunky wedges or batons. For eating raw, kohlrabi is best grated or cut into very thin slices or matchsticks. Raw kohlrabi is fantastic in salads and slaws, a bit like a radish. Like most veg, you can boil it into soup, toss into stir-fries, or add it to stews 30-40 mins before the end of cooking. Or for an easy side dish, toss with oil and seasoning and roast at 210˚C/Gas 7 for 30 mins.'
And finally, nothing whatsoever to do with veggies but thought this website was pretty amazing. You can search by theme - try searching for Denbigh - for watercolours from pre-1900 (when that's how things were documented). Very simple and strangely absorbing.
have a good week